Future
- 85 F-35A Lightning II are expected to replace the F-16 fleet, the number is probably cut to 42 due to rising costs and budget-cuts by the Dutch government. One F-35A has been delivered for the testing program and for training pilots and maintenance crew. This first aircraft is stationed at a base in Florida, USA.
- 20 NH90 helicopters will replace the former Navy Lynx helicopters. The NH90 helicopters will be stationed at Gilze-Rijen (8 NH-90 Naval Transport version and SAR) and De Kooy (12 NFH-90 anti-submarine warfare).
The Netherlands was the first country to sign up for the Production Sustainment and Follow On Development (PSFD) Phase of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft.
Through the NATO Strategic Airlift Capability, the RNLAF has access to three C-17s.
Read more about this topic: Royal Netherlands Air Force
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“He who asks fortune-tellers the future unwittingly forfeits an inner intimation of coming events that is a thousand times more exact than anything they may say. He is impelled by inertia, rather than curiosity, and nothing is more unlike the submissive apathy with which he hears his fate revealed than the alert dexterity with which the man of courage lays hands on the future.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“‘Tis the world-old way of the rain
When it comes to a mountain farm
To exact for a present gain
A little of future harm.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“The moments of the past do not remain still; they retain in our memory the motion which drew them towards the future, towards a future which has itself become the past, and draw us on in their train.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)